Also, how are you coming up with these creatures? Are these from existing toolkits or settings or supplements or from other games? Are they for a particular reason or just a general "we need a main monster list"?

Snate56 wrote:One thing off the top of my head, the increase in die type would be better because it decreases the chance of rolling a one, and thus failing.

Have a look at the Savage Odds tables.
+1 die type moves you one column down
+1 to the roll moves you one column left
Generally +1 to the roll works out better against TNs of 6 or less (e.g. when Shooting); +1 die type works out better against high TNs (e.g. Fighting an opponent with high parry).

Snate56 wrote:Ahh, but a die roll of 1 is a failure regardless of how many plusses you have.

SteveN

The odds of your Wild Die also being 1 are 1 in 6, and as long as your Wild Die succeeds you're good. Sure, you might have some backlash (Arcane Backgrounds are the most common example) but you still succeeded and it's not like you critically failed; that only happens on Snake Eyes.
That works out to a pretty tiny percentage of auto-failure, no matter what your trait die-type is.

"Got a problem? I've got the solution: Rocket Launcher.""Not against a Servitor.""... We're all gonna die."

Snate56 wrote:Ahh, but a die roll of 1 is a failure regardless of how many plusses you have.

As noted, above, only a critical failure (double 1's) is a failure regardless of bonuses. Still, you are correct that increasing the die type also decreases the chance of critical failure as well, not something to just discount.

That said, bonuses can have a greater than expected impact in SW. Even a +2 bonus means at least a normal success against a standard TN of 4 in every case except a critical failure (barring other penalties of course). Course there are other aspects to consider, but it's something to always keep in mind.

Acknowledged.
I discounted the wild die because it's on both sides of the equation.
And with the "+1" equaling the increase in average you get when you add a die type, one of the changes are the odds regarding rolling a 1 on the Attribute/Skill die.

SteveN

EDIT: Aaa! Sorry Lord Lance, your right, I forgot where I was!

"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reasons.">Mark Twain<

Well again sorry for derailing the beastiary topic - I asked and then got offtrack about my project then realized what this thread was, so again, I'm sorry, but thank you to all the people who have replied, including the Admin, who ought to know better. =D

Like I said before, I really am impressed with this document, I can see it being quite a compilation (it already is, obviously), a very valuable resource for GMs, and of course, my favorite price! Are you going for anything in particular, a theme, or breaking it down into categories, or stopping at a certain point, or what?

Mmm, I would happy to simply finish the update / retune of the original file (it was simply in alphabetical order). So I don't think I'll create sub-sections, themes etc. (however, as you can see, in this "bestiary" there are Dinosaurs, Killers, Demons, Aliens, Dragons ... It's quite omni-comprehensive, from fantasy to pulp to modern-conspiracy).

Of course, the file is fully free, so if someone with nice web skills want to take the creatures and put them in a website with filters for categories, themes etc. it would be fantastic!

PS: Clint can/must we include the Savage World Fan product in the file? With some legalese text included?

I hate to somewhat derail once more, but Fan License? I've written things for warhammer and am writing a document for Feng Shui, so I'm sort of familiar with producing CC stuff for games, so what's this fan license?

jpneok wrote:I hate to somewhat derail once more, but Fan License? I've written things for warhammer and am writing a document for Feng Shui, so I'm sort of familiar with producing CC stuff for games, so what's this fan license?

Toughness: +5 (+2) - 2 from increased Vigor (unless he's above d12), 1 from increased size, 2 from increased armor.
Edges: What is the Fear edge?
"Boss evades your cowardly ranged attack!" - Cool.
"Boss feels no pain! - The Boss is Hardy and takes no wound penalties."
"Boss knows no fear" - so, the Strong Willed edge?
"Boss hates bookkeeping!" - Funny.
"Boss is a Pro - Boss may take a second action at no multi-action penalties. Also, he may ignore all off-hand and similar penalties. [Existing and cool examples]"
"Boss is the big one! - Size +1. If he's already big, check for Large/Huge/Gargantuan"
"Come get some! - Foes gain no Gang-Up bonuses against the Boss."
"Muahahahah! - When Incapacitated, the Boss explodes! This may be a final activation, a dead-man switch, or whatever trappings are appropriate. All within a Large Burst template take 3d6 damage (Agility at -2 to avoid the blast) of an appropriate trapping (fire, acid, radiation, etc). This does destroy all the Boss's gear."
"Armor: +2. The Boss's existing armor improves (or he now has armor)."
"Weapons: +1 damage. The Boss has better weapons, which deal +1 damage." - +1 step is harder to work with, explain, and doesn't always help out (Snake Eyes on damage rolls). This way, it's a smaller bonus but always improves the damage total. Feel free to go back to what you had before.

Overall, pretty cool. Over-the-top, but Boss monsters are always supposed to be a bit over the top.
Did that help?

"Got a problem? I've got the solution: Rocket Launcher.""Not against a Servitor.""... We're all gonna die."

Thanks ValhallaGH! Some note was useful, I did some modification. However my primary concern is about the construction of the phrases, I like the short descriptive/flavor text intro in the abilities! Finally, I don't want to contract a Boss ability to a simple "Strong Willed" 'cause I want the Boss abilities better explained (as you can see in Fantasy Companion, often the monster ability is fully described so you don't have to check the base manual every time) AND in some case, like this one, if I want to name an ability in a different way: USUALLY different abilities stacks, so a Boss could have Strong Willed as normal edge AND "Boss knows no fear!", getting bonuses from both. About "Boss evades your cowardly ranged attack!", that is a sort of Deflection power trapping, and I want it stacking as for the others. I hope I explained my choices about that template.

Lord Lance wrote:Ehi guys, please check the new, super useful, super funny "BOSS TEMPLATE" that you find in the first part of the file.

I need to know if I can better write the phrases, 'cause - you know - english is not my 1st language.

(and please, use it against your players in your next adventure!!!)

As ValhallaGh said, more awesome work. I haven't tended to bother with templates myself up till now, but this one has jumped straight to my "I've just got to use this!' list.

There are a small number of additional errors on top of those ValhallaGH picked up. For convenience here's all the corrections/suggested changes in one list. The list includes spelling and grammatical corrections, so you may want to copy and paste each item direct into your document to make sure all the little changes get across.

FYI, Muahahaha! probably works better as an optional special ability (to allow for bosses that surrender or escape), and I've added Secret Getaway (also optional) for those bosses who always find a way to escape.
I'd also suggest giving the Boss the Sweep edge so that he can cause real trouble if the party try to gang up on him (this is in addition to the Come Get Some! ability).
In keeping with you desire for dramatic wording I've thrown in a couple of suggestions.
Hope this all helps - like I said, what you've got already is awesome.

A Boss can hold his own against an entire party, but is usually found in the company of his last, loyal-till-the-end minions.

Boss feels no pain!: He is impervious to, or has learned to fight on through the most intense pain. The Boss suffers no wound penalties, and if Shaken does not suffer damage from further Shaken results.

Boss knows no fear!:

Boss hates bookkeeping!: If the Boss has Powers, do not keep track of his PPs. He has a lot of them, trust me.

Boss is a Pro!: He is faster, meaner and downright nastier than expected. Boss may make one additional action or attack each round with no multi-action penalty. Also, he ignores all off-hand or similar penalties.

Boss is the big one!: Size +1. If he's already big, increase to Large/Huge/Gargantuan as appropriate.

Come get some!: The Boss loves having lots of foes to fight. In addition to gaining the Sweep edge (see above), the Boss is masterful at fighting in a crowd. Foes do not get Gang-Up bonuses against the Boss.

Muahahahah! (Optional): When Incapacitated, the Boss explodes! This may be a final activation, a dead-man switch, or whatever trappings are appropriate. All within a Large Burst template take 3d6 damage (Agility at -2 to avoid the blast) of an appropriate trapping (fire, acid, radiation, etc). This destroys the Boss's gear, and may damage or destroy the surrounding area (as appropriate).

Secret Getaway! (Optional): When Incapacitated the boss's secret getaway plan is activated. An explosion or other dramatic event distracts the party, and the Boss is momentarily lost from sight. Subsequent searches fail to find his body.

This is coming along very nicely. It's interesting to see different takes on creatures that exist in other books, like the Fantasy Companion. Regarding the Oil Beetles, I'd suggest getting rid of the Agility roll to avoid the oil stream. The Shooting roll already assumes the target is trying not to get hit. Or you can make it an AoE attack, like a cone template, in which case drop the Shooting roll and just have the target make an Agility roll to avoid the oil.

Yeah Shadowdragon! As you can see, I highlighted that ability 'cause I'm not convinced by the original writing. So, when I have time and/or cool illuminations, I'll read the document again and make some changes.
Of course I love to get advices from other users, 'cause this is a quite open project.

Finally, I'm trying to "harmonize" the abilities and the writings between the various creatures, 'cause I think there was a lot of minds behind the old document. Where I can, I remove the "custom" created abilities with specific rules (maybe derived from d20 ruling), and I bring back the "standard" SW mechanics.